Some time ago I blew a bit more money than I could really afford, on a Panasonic Lumix FZ-10 ........... and I am really glad that I did.
So when the FZ-20 appeared, I drooled a bit, but decided that buying food and paying my rent was more important than a new camera.
But when the FZ-30 appeared, my local photo shop put the FZ-20 on "Special Offer" and the temptation became too much for me ..... and I needed to go on a diet and loose a bit of weight anyway.

One of my biggest complaints about so many modern cameras is their use of servo motors, and the valuable battery power they waste, to do just about everything. Heck, there's NOTHING complicated or difficult about turning a shutter speed dial, or an aperture ring, or turning a focus ring or a zoom slide either. Having a switch to press, that commands an electical circuit to drive a motor, to do something that you could so easliy do with your own fingers, just adds hundreds of pounds to the cost of the camera, and introduces a whole pile of extra bits to go wrong.

So the FZ-30 offered MANUAL Zoom and Focus and a Non-Retracting Lense to save even more time, wear & tear, and battery power, and even more Megapixels too ..... and I was tempted again.

But I read reviews that criticised its noise levels ......... and these convinced me that I didn't really NEED a new camera, well at least not at the expense of having no food, so I decided to "struggled on" with my existing cameras.

But now the FZ-50 has appeared, and Panasonic are making great claims for its vast REDUCTION IN NOISE when compared to the FZ-30.
Damn ! The only reason that was stopping me from buying an FZ-30 has now been made irrelevant ....... and they have thrown in EVEN MORE Megapixels too !
Just what I need, a camera with so many magapixels that I can enlarge my own photos to make .... WALLPAPER !
(Damn ! This means I'll have to upgrade my A3 Photo Printer too !)

So for the first time since I became hooked on the Panasonic Lumix FZ range, it looks like I am going to leapfrog over a model !
I have assumed that "mechanically" the FZ-50 is identical to the FZ-30, that the only real differences are in their electronics, and I have taken Panasonic at their word that all their "CLAIMED" improvements are indeed true.

So I have ordered one of the new models and will be only too happy to write a review of it, once I have broken it in. (Assuming I find another source of food to keep me alive in the mean time).

Noise aside, the FZ30 was an excellent camera, and thanks to the effective OIS, you could take most of your photos at low ISOs anyway and avoid the noise.

The FZ50 promises lower noise, but remember it squeezes in more pixels, so it will certainly be interesting to see how it copes. I suspect the noise reduction could be more aggressive, but will only find out once we do a full review.

Speaking of which, I've already played with the FZ50 and have some sample images at different ISOs, but am waiting to hear from Panasonic about the software version of that particular model before posting.

If you get hold of one, we'd love to hear what you think. Let us know in the Forum, or if you have a camcorder, why not consider putting together a brief 2 or 3 minute video going over what you believe are the good and bad points. Then upload it to www.youtube.com so we can all see it...

I actually bought an FZ50, but the noise issue was too much for me - stray pixels everywhere - which is truly disappointing because EVERYTHING else (bar a wider angle lens - and this is just preference) was just about perfect. However, I found the sharpness materially degraded at even ISO 100 in the tests I did, and artefacts present that made sharpening a dicey issue (pity, because otherwise the files are quite robust and take to a certain amount of manipulation, unlike Fuji). When I tested, a Canon 400D with 18-55 kit lens did much better, as long as it was around f8. For me, the more plasticy and agricultural (and much cheaper) Fuji S6500 does for now.